2 boys doused with gas, set on fire, police say

A father and his two young sons suffered severe burns in what police are investigating as an arson in their Glendale Heights home, authorities said Monday.

After the fire, Kaushik Patel, 34, drove his 7- and 4-year-old sons from their home in the 1800 block of Harvest Lane about 5 miles to the home of a family member in Hanover Park, where police and fire officials were called at 9:15 p.m. Sunday, police said.

Patel was taken to GlenOaks Hospital in Glendale Heights, and the boys to Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield. All three were later airlifted to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, said Glendale Heights Police Cmdr. Dennis Schar.

Their conditions were unavailable late Monday.

The boys were doused with gasoline and set ablaze in a room in their home, police said.

Officials with Glendale Heights and the DuPage County Major Crimes Task Force were trying to interview Patel, Schar said.

DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkettt said that investigators were at the hospital and the scene of the fire, but that no arrests or criminal charges were expected Monday evening.

Kaushik Patel's wife, Nishaben, who is the mother of the boys, was not with the family when they were burned, said Daisy Kalapurackal, a Glendale Heights neighbor.

Kalapurackal said she saw Nishaben Patel outside her home Monday and asked her what happened.

As the children's grandmother wept in a nearby car, Kalapurackal said Patel told her: "There was a fire in my house and my kids got hurt real bad and my husband too. I don't know how it happened."

Neighbors at the Hanover Park residence in the 1800 block of Whitney Drive said they saw the children being placed in ambulances.